I. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to wire connector assemblies. More particularly, this invention pertains to strain relief attachments for such wire connector assemblies.
II. Description of the Prior Art
In the prior art, wire connector assemblies are widely used to modularly connect a wire cable to a piece of equipment or to another cable. Such connector assemblies consist of two sides including a wire attaching side and a terminal mating side.
A commonly available wire connector assembly is marketed under the name CHAMP and manufactured by the AMP Corporation of Harrisburg, Pa. In this connector, the wire attaching side includes two parallel rows of insulation displacement connectors. Each of the insulation displacement connectors has a slot which is perpendicular to the rows and contains an electrically conductive insulation piercing member which projects into the slot. When an insulation bearing conductive wire is inserted into the slot, the insulation piercing members pierce the insulation and contact the wire conductor to provide good electrical and mechanical connection between the wire and the insulation displacement connectors. The insulation displacement connectors hold the inserted wires with the wire axes perpendicular to the rows to provide two rows of parallel linearly aligned wires. The terminal mating side of the conductor is provided with either a male or female configuration for receiving a terminal to connect the wire connector assembly with a piece of equipment or to splice with another cable.
In wire connector assemblies as described above, the wire is mechanically held within the assembly by reason of the contact between the knife edges of the insulation piercing members and the conductive wire. If the wire were to be moved, it will bend at the point of contact between the wire and the insulation displacement connectors. When this happens, the wire can become cold worked and break. To avoid this problem, the prior art has developed strain relief attachments for such wire connector assemblies. Such strain relief attachments include body members which are secured to the wire connector assembly and present restraining edges which are disposed opposing the wires and displaced spaced from the insulation displacement connectors. As a result of this configuration, when a wire is bent transversely to the longitudinal direction of the insulation displacement connector rows, the conductor will bend at a location opposing a restraining edge. At this location, the insulation is still in contact and there is no sharp bend made on the conductive wire. As a result, wire failure is abated. The restraining edge also acts to hold the wire within the insulation displacement connector.
Notwithstanding the fact that prior art strain relief attachments have added some protection to wire displacement and breakage, wire connector assemblies with such prior art strain relief attachments still present certain problems which the art has to date been unable to fully rectify. For example, such connectors are still susceptible to wire breakage due to cold working of the wire. Although such occurrences are relatively slight, even an occasional breakage is extremely troublesome since such connectors are used with a substantial number of wires which are not readily identifiable and therefore require a substantial amount of labor time to identify the broken wire and make necessary repairs and replacements. Also, it is possible for foreign conductive material to find its way into the wire connector assembly and possibly create a short across two or more of the insulation displacement connectors. Still another problem associated with such prior art wire connector assemblies is that when a large plurality of wires are connected to the wire attaching side, they may become entangled and jumbled such that the wire connector assembly does not provide an organized appearance which would facilitate wire identification. Finally, such prior art wire connector assemblies are commonly provided with means to mount the assemblies in a mounting bracket. Such assemblies typically provide for mechanisms of mounting which are not conducive to quick installation and occasionally provide for a weak or unstable mount.